A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to establish a farm futures pilot program that promotes collaborative efforts among federal and state agencies, universities, NONGOVERNMENTAL organizations, PRIVATE enterprise, and landowners to protect and enhance working farms for purposes of supporting rural communities, producing safe and healthy food and fiber, protecting habitat for endangered and other wildlife and plant species, preserving open space, improving water quality and groundwater recharge, and increasing economic opportunities for existing and new farm families.
Whereas, in S.L. 2000‑23, the General Assembly found that additional permanent protection of lands for environmental protection and public use is needed to complement our State's economic growth and to meet our citizens' needs for generations to come; and 
Whereas, the General Assembly reaffirms the strong desire of the State and its citizens to conserve and protect working farms as part of North Carolina's agricultural heritage and finds this conservation and protection of working farms is a necessary component of the State's economic health and also protects the State's natural resources and open space; Now, therefore,
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  A Farm Futures Pilot Program is established in the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The Commissioner of Agriculture shall establish the initial pilot program at an existing facility or research farm of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.  The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services shall develop the Pilot Program so that the Pilot Program serves as a regional catalyst to promote and enhance working farms in North Carolina.
SECTION 2.  The purposes of the Farm Futures Pilot Program are to: 
(1)	Promote collaborative efforts that will enhance the sustainability of working farms in North Carolina.
(2)	Provide office space for nongovernmental land trust and farmland protection organizations, entrepreneur farm product incubator activities, satellite university and community college and extension coursework, and other activities associated with farmland protection, farm production, marketing, and value‑added industries.
(3)	Develop the need for a food‑processing center for local farmers and marketers.
(4)	Conduct workshops for county agricultural districting programs, farmland protection and preservation services, new crop and new farm management systems, and environmental stewardship programs.
(5)	Develop a mentoring program to encourage older farmers to remain on the farm while training young farm families to assume the financial and production responsibilities of the farm.
(6)	Partner with private enterprises, government agencies, educational institutions, and nongovernmental organizations in developing complementary financial, production, and marketing plans with a regional perspective and reflective of changes in traditional agriculture with designs for transitioning to new crops, new farming methods, and new management plans.
SECTION 3.  The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services shall initially develop the Farm Futures Pilot Program to focus on those central Piedmont counties and communities whose farms traditionally relied on tobacco production to support the working farm and the rural economy.  The Farm Futures Pilot Program shall be developed so that it is adaptable to other regions of the State and designed to meet the continued changes predicted for agriculture in North Carolina.
SECTION 4.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services the sum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for the 2003‑2004 fiscal year to initiate the Farm Futures Pilot Program established under Section 1 of this act. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services the sum of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) for the 2004‑2005 fiscal year to continue the Farm Futures Pilot Program established under Section 1 of this act, for continued staffing, promotion, and coordination of regional programs, and to establish and maintain an Internet information site for the Farm Futures Pilot Program.
SECTION 5.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2003.